The instant invention relates to adapters for permitting electrical lamps to be threaded into light sockets. More specifically, the invention relates to an adapter for permitting an electrical lamp to be threaded into a light socket while protecting against damage to the light socket as a result of excessive torque applied to the lamp during the threading process.
It is known in the art to provide electrical adapters having threads which permit the adapter to be threaded into a correspondingly threaded socket of a light fixture and which have connection means compatible with an electrical lamp which may or may not, by itself, be provided with suitable threads for attachment to the light fixture without the use of an adapter. Some adapters have male threads suitable for engaging the female threads of a standard light socket in a light fixture and female threads suitable for receiving the male threads of a lamp such as an incandescent light bulb. Such adapters sometimes provide an AC receptacle for receiving the male plug of an electrical appliance. Other adapters have a switch or a pull chain and are particularly useful when the light fixture is not provided with its own switch means.
Other adapters are known for use in permitting a lamp which is not, in of itself, compatible with the female threads of a standard light socket to be connected to the socket. The use of fluorescent lamps has become increasingly popular due to the high degree of light output obtainable per unit of electrical power expended and the pleasing color of the light emitted, which, to the human eye, approximates daylight. Adapters are known which include a male threaded connector and supporting members suitable for engaging a fluorescent lamp and effecting electrical communication between the lamp and the power output terminals of the threaded electrical socket.
Exertion of excessive torque or rotational force on a lamp when it is being threaded into a socket often causes damage to the threads of the socket or the supporting body of the socket and sometimes results in jamming between the threaded portions of the lamp and socket which makes it difficult to remove the lamp from the socket without damaging the often fragile glass lamp. This is especially likely where the lamp is a circular fluorescent tube having a diameter much greater than that of common incandescent lamps and therefore causing substantially greater torques to be applied to the lamp socket than is the case with a smaller diameter incandescent bulb when the same rotational force is applied to both.